Tony's Reluctant Partner reupload
by TheVirtuoso
Summary: Tony has a new temporary partner. They don't get along very well. [this is a reupload. fixed a few mistakes my reviewers kindly pointed out]... This is a series of connected fics that take place during a 3-5 week period. the first chapter covers three weeks and most of the following ones will take place during that time.
1. Tony's Reluctant Partner

AN: Always thought the Major's name was Lauren. This is a repost with a correction.

Tony found himself weary of his new partner. Ziva had been sent off on an undercover mission by the director – despite Gibbs' protests – and Tony thought it would just be himself and McGee until she got back but they weren't so lucky. The new guy sat in Ziva's desk and used her computer but he wasn't nearly so nice to look at or poke-fun-at. Tony remembered the guy's second day.

"Proby." Tony had called softly while McGee was with Abby for something or other, "Hey Proby!" he said a bit louder when the first summons got no response, "Yo Proby, pay attention." Finally the guy looked up, frustration clear in his eyes.

"Agent, I am not a probationary officer I never have been nor will I ever be a probationary officer. I won't respond to the moniker," the slight grimace showed exactly what he thought of NCIS, "I am a Marine Major. You can call me Major or Lorne." After a beat he added, "Evan if you want I guess."

"If you don't want to be here why are you?" Gibbs asked from behind Lorne, Tony jumped: Evan didn't even twitch. He turned toward the Boss and explained in terse and sarcastic tones.

"SecNav is mad at SecAF not sharing so he sent me away from my," he paused to glare at Tony, "Highly classified," his eyes flicked back to land on Gibbs, "post as head of security on a largely air force base."

His rueful gaze switched to his computer, "I am not an investigator. This piece of crap computer is as fast as a sloth compared to what I'm used to and you idiots won't even let me carry my weapon in doors." The returning McGee frowned at Lorne's computer before he sent an email to Tony.

"_I programed his computer for him: he has the least back-log as it's new – no files to clog it up. It should be the fastest in the bullpen."_

"Don't care." Gibbs responded, policing his weapon. He did care though, or at least Tony thought he took it into consideration. After that conversation Lorne was put to use mainly as an enforcer: he would run down suspects, haul them into or out of cars and interrogation. If there was a fire-fight Lorne would take point (He was quite good at that). The one time they needed to make a tactical breach of a drug-dealer's strong hold Lorne made one call and had an elite team of marines in for back up. Tony thought that he was settling in: he had started to respond a bit to Tony's ribbing names and he even smiled a time or two.

During the investigative aspects of day-to-day life at NCIS, though, he was still stiff and despondent: he showed absolutely no interest in what they were doing and not even Gibbs' worst stare would get him motivated. Tony amused himself by pretending Lorne did it on purpose. He never messed up collecting evidence or broke the chain of custody but he was slow. He always asked Tony or McGee to do his tasks with him to, "make sure I don't mess up and ruin the case for court."

One week dragged into two and Tony couldn't get Lorne to budge on his prior postings. Eleven years ago he seemed to be reaching for the edge of the map. For a little while he was listed as base security on some land-locked base where the Air Force studied Deep Space Something-or-Other. But that was quickly revealed as a cover story (one that hadn't changed since the 90s). About two years later he was transferred to Antarctica for barely three months before suddenly he completed his journey off the map: there was nothing about him until a week and a half earlier, just before he showed up at NCIS.

The whole thing reeked of Black Ops but who had ever heard of a Black Ops Head of Base Security? Tony found the whole thing quite mysterious. McGee didn't even have any luck hacking the land-locked base. His attempts somehow always ended with him on some Academic Journal site with either theoretical astrophysics or archaeology. Two weeks had almost turned into three when a man, maybe six feet if he stretched, strolled casually out of the elevator.

Tony got the first look at him. He looked like a civilian with his low-rise, tight, boot-cut jeans and green tea shirt, surfing cartoon included. His hair was just a little bit too long for regulation and Tony thought it was just a little bit gelled. He walked slowly looking around him at the sea of people. His eyes landed on the back of Lorne's head and a smirk ghosted across his lips for nearly a second. Tony thought about warning the Major about his guest but decided to let it play out: he might learn something.

"Not slacking off without me around to inspire you, are ya Major?" He drawled abruptly (Tony didn't even think that was possible), leaning against the low partition between Ziva's desk and the walk way. It definitely got a response just not the one Tony was expecting. The major jumped to his feet grinning widely.

"No colonel: I couldn't do that to you: I knew you and the General would get me back to base soon enough." He gave a lazy salute: nowhere near the standard the major had shown the NCIS agents up to that point. Suddenly he frowned at the non-regulation colonel, "That is why you're here right: to take me home?"

The colonel squinted at his man – Tony could tell that's what he was – "I sure hope so major: Base is boring without you for Ronan to goad into a fight. I have to talk to the director. SecAF has you back so long as this team can survive without you. Come with me to see him. Your eavesdropping friend can make your excuses." His eyes flicked to Tony, narrowing in a Gibbs like manner. For once Tony kept his council. Lorne visibly straitened, something Tony had yet to see, and the odd pair made their way up the steps.

Barely a moment later Gibbs and McGee came strolling into the bullpen from the opposite direction. Gibbs looked up at the two in time to see Lorne's eye scanned to enter MTAC, "Who's with the Major, DiNozzo?" Tony pulled himself out of thinking about how Lorne got cleared for MTAC. Tony wasn't cleared for MTAC and he had Top Secret Clearance.

"Don't know Boss. Lorne called him 'Colonel' and asked if he was going back to his mysterious base. So my best guess is he's some sort of air force dude." Tony said unhelpfully; making Lorne's excuses, just like colonel floppy hair predicted. Gibbs just growled and jogged up the steps, McGee and Tony close on his heels.

One iris scan later and the three agents were greeted by an almost deserted room. Only Lorne, the colonel, and the director were live. The big screen had two faces. Lorne and the Colonel stood as one point on an odd triangle their bodies angled so they could see both the pair on the big screen and the director himself. The Director stood about two feet to the right of the colonel, staying on camera for those on the screen but, still, there was a gap: three distinct groups. Of the two on screen one was obviously SecNav. The other was most definitely not SecAF. He looked like he was a general; he had a lot of medals and commendations. The unknown (air force?) general squinted at the newcomers.

"Secure the room Colonel Sheppard." He said and immediately – with no hesitation to speak of, so fast Tony thought of the ninja named Ziva – the colonel had his gun drawn and pointed at Gibbs. Lorne, Tony noted with some small part of his brain, pulled his own gun and pointed it at Gibbs a second later and wondered why he hadn't notice that Lorne was carrying it. The rest of his brain was screaming about his own gun, still tucked in his desk, in a word, useless. The pair of guns were lowered and holstered after a word from Lorne. All of this took barely three seconds but it was long enough in Tony's book.

"General O'Neill, Colonel Sheppard," Lorne started, "These are agents Gibbs, DiNozzo, and McGee of NCIS." Lorne stated, gesturing to each agent in turn, "It is Gibbs' team that I have been assigned to General. They can attest my overall uselessness in the field." The last statement got a grin from the general and a scowl from SecNav.

"Be that as it may, Major Lorne," the director started, "This is a closed meeting. They don't have an invite."

"You're right, director they don't," O'Neill said sarcastically, "But they do deserve to know why they were saddled with an investigative greenhorn don't they, SecNav." From the way his eyes flicked around the screen Tony could only guess he was looking from one of Tony's superiors to another.

"If the kind agents would wait outside the room until after our meeting, Sheppard has the go ahead to read them in. for their ears only Jarvis, same as anyone else." His tone brooked no argument. Tony was slightly amazed as he was pushed out of the room. Some unknown general talking to the Secretary of the Navy like he was some kid caught with his hand in the proverbial.

As soon as the door clicked shut behind the trio Gibbs was barking orders. Search their names and histories. They were air force so be careful. A frustrating twenty minutes later they had less on their new friends then they had on Lorne.

The General retired twice as a colonel and was called back to duty both times to work on 'Deep Space Something-or-Other' before being promoted to general out of the blue. After his promotion he quickly gained a second star and an office in the Pentagon. His official title was Second Assistant Director of Homeland Security. No one could figure out why there would be a second one in the first place.

Sheppard was a disgraced major flying choppers in Antarctica before disappearing for a year and coming back a colonel. Sheppard's promotion was squirrelly it looked like some civilian PhD forced it through the system. There was something about her refusing to work with anyone else as base commander. One thing that tied them all together was the redacted scream of Black Ops. Black Ops that the SecNav wasn't privy to. And the strange Journal articles that kept popping up in the search.

After that brief dalliance the small team had no choice but to wait for Lorne and Sheppard to show up. McGee – little worker bee that Tony knew he was – got to work on some files that needed filing and some papers that needed… papering. Tony just goofed off. Gibbs? Well Tony had no clue what Gibbs did most of the time, this was no exception. It turns out they didn't have to wait long Tony had just gotten to level three of his Candy Crush Saga game when Sheppard and Lorne filed out of MTAC and down the stairs. Lorne went to Ziva's desk and cleared out his few belongings. All of which fit into his cargo pants except for a photo frame. Tony had snuck a peek at it once. It was a beautiful auburn-haired, olive-skinned goddess in leather. She smiled at the camera while holding a P-90 to her chest. Sheppard caught sight of the picture and raised an eyebrow at the major, muttering almost silently, "Really Lorne? I'd threaten you if you hurt her but Tayla'd just kill you herself." Lorne just grinned back at his superior.

Rather than reply to Lorne's grin Sheppard turned to the agents, "Come on team Gibbs!" he crowed affectionately, "Let's find somewhere private to talk." His gaze shifted from the agent seated behind Ziva and Gibbs' desks to the obvious cameras in the corners.

"This way sir, there is a service elevator to the evidence garage." Tony easily followed the major's logic. He knew that Lorne had been a guest in Gibbs' office quite a few times in the past three weeks; Tony quickly realized that the small elevator that served Gibbs would be quite cramped with the five of them.

"Alright. Here're the bare bones: Maj Lorne is my 2IC for a highly classified base, called the Outer Base in public. The outer base is largely a research centre and it is international. The Air Force started the program a long time ago but we have always had marines as well. Lorne is head of security and he is one of only a handful of people who can pilot our transport. SecNav was feeling prissy as politicians often do when they don't get to read all the reports sent to the President. Because of that he got Lorne's name off of a heavily redacted report and demanded his transfer. The Lower and Outer bases had to scramble to get him here before SecNav threatened to have him court-martialed. General O'Neill and SecAF have been working for five weeks to get Lorne back where he belongs. Finally SecAF had to call in a huge favour and ask the President to put him back. Obama agreed but on the condition that we wouldn't be leaving NICS hanging if we brought him home." He looked around at the agents, "Ask your questions. We will answer them if we can."

McGee started, "The United States has two secret air force bases?" he sounded disbelieving.

"Oh there are more than two; you just know most of their names. Let's see there is NORAD, Lower and Outer, Atlantis Research outpost in Antarctica, ah, there's the Alpha and Beta sights, hm." He paused to think, "Those are the only ones I can think of right now. There are probably more. Beyond NORAD those are all lumped into one group called HWD.*

"Major Lorne has been a part of HWD for how long now Major?" Sheppard's questing look found his man.

"Almost twelve years now, sir. They found me and a buddy at FLETC; my buddy didn't make it very far." Sheppard offered his condolences as Gibbs cut in.

"How long have you been part of the HWD, colonel?" Gibbs Hesitated on the acronym, trapping the letters behind his teeth for a moment.

"About half as long agent: I stumbled upon a chair I shouldn't have touched. Command just sort of fell on my lap after that."

"How is it that a colonel is in charge of a whole base?" Tony asked, weren't those positions reserved for generals?

"Colonel Sheppard isn't in charge of all of the outer base, just the military and his team. We have a unique command structure: Civilian at the top, then it would be military and scientist on par but the head scientist is also 2IC of the colonel's team. That puts him half a step behind Colonel Sheppard. After that I am in charge of security and military if Colonel Sheppard is unavailable – which happens more than you might think."

"Now, now Major Lorne you shouldn't give away all our secrets." Sheppard grinned before adding, "The only All American thing about the Outer Base is the military. One of our top researchers is Czech." He looked from agent to agent before smiling and nodding to himself. Sheppard drew a small, business sized card out of his pocket and handed it to Gibbs.

Glancing over his bosses shoulder Tony saw a phone number, no name and an odd two sided triangle under a circle.

"If you ever come across this symbol in a case call that number. We will find the answers you need." Sheppard sounded ominous before turning to Lorne, "Come on major! We have three weeks to catch up before we get home. Then you can see your Athosian Zina." With that he led the major out of the elevator and out of Tony's life. Tony didn't know if it would be forever but a guy could hope.

Couldn't he?

END

*Home World Defence. I know you guys are smart enough to get that but it wasn't said all that often on the show. (That's what Jack is in charge of btw)

AN

I would love to hear some feedback on this: I tried to write it from Tony's perspective and not wonder but I don't know how I did. Please tell me?

I don't think Lorne was on Atlantis for the first year but he's such a great character with the ATA gene that I couldn't see the SGC leaving him on earth.

I made McKay 2IC of AR1 (Atlantis recon one) because I think that earth would prefer it if an earthling was higher ranked than a Pegasus native even if both Ronan and Tayla can whip him easily.

I am not a Lorne/Tayla shipper. That just worked its way in: he HAD to have something personal and a photo of his team would have had unexplainable uniforms for Tony to see.


	2. Abby's Puzzle

Abby had a new puzzle. It was a puzzle wrapped in an enigma buried under a mountain. Its name was Maj. Evan Lorne. The Major had joined up with Gibbs' team while Ziva was away. Seeing the new guy Abby had immediately set out to hate the man. Or severely dislike him at the very least. The major didn't care though. He just did his thing - very poor investigative work. He was polite to Abby when they interacted but that wasn't often and it was never just the two of them. It was always Tony and Lorne and Abby or Tim and Lorne and Abby, once it was even Gibbs and Lorne and Abby; and Abby was fine with that. She didn't trust the marine.

Today, however, Abby needed to talk to the walking puzzle on his own. He had collected the statements at the latest scene and she couldn't make heads or tails of his notes: it was a series of lines and dashes that was like no shorthand Abby had ever seen.

The elevator ding announced her guest but Abby didn't hear it: her music was as cranked as ever. "Ms. Sciuto? The Major's voice cut above the backdrop of heavy metal, "Agent DiNozzo said you were looking for me." That was another thing: the puzzle was always formal with all of them. Except for Ducky who had succeeded in training the puzzle to call him Donald – not quite Ducky but close enough.

"Yes I did, Evan," Abby, however, never missed a chance to call someone by their first name, "What does this say?" she waved an evidence bag containing Lorne's pad in front of the man's face. He grabbed it out of her hand and motioned for quite. It wasn't sign language but rather military signs. Abby noticed her puzzle used them a lot and always expected the signs to be followed. Abby thought about rebelling to see what Lorne would do but quickly decided she wanted answers about the shorthand first. Without looking away from Lorne – who was concentrating on the bagged pad – she clicked down her music to almost nothing.

"These are my notes from the interviews from yesterday." He started frowning at Abby, confused, "What is it you can't make out?" Abby couldn't fathom what he was confused about though: not a single word was in plain English, Abby had checked. He glanced back at the page before a look of recognition dawned on him, "Sorry about that Ms. Sciuto I didn't even realize I was writing in Ancient, I'll transcribe them for you right now if you want." He was reaching for a pen on her evidence table so Abby screeched at him.

"Don't touch that! It's evidence!" Her voice was probable louder than necessary but it got the job done: Evan didn't touch a thing. Instead his questing hand raked over his eyes. Looking at the pen in question Abby felt herself flush, "Oh, sorry Evan, that's not evidence." Rather than being affronted as his formal attitude had predicted Lorne laughed.

It wasn't just a chuckle either it was a full bellied laugh that had the major bent at the waist resting his hands on his thighs, Abby would swear he was almost crying, "Thank you Ms. Sciuto, I needed that. You sounded just like McKay when you did that," Lorne said wiping his eye, "Can I borrow your pen to rewrite this for you?" he asked, gesturing to the object with his bagged pad.

"Ah, yeah sure. If you want to stay down here to write it you can." Abby knew from Tim that Lorne hated working in the bullpen. If that laugh meant anything Abby would bet it meant that he missed being around the people with whom he was comfortable: Abby could stand his presence long enough for him to transcribe his own notes. Lorne nodded his gratitude as he headed toward her office.

It barely took the major fifteen minutes before he was walking back out to Abby, evidence bag in one hand small stack of paper in the other. Glancing at the stack Abby noticed that there were still a bit of the shorthand in the margins and asked about it. "They're chapter headings. They will help me find things in the text, like this one," he pointed to one that reappeared every couple of paragraphs, "This one is any time one of the witnesses mentioned the weapon." Scanning the top page Abby saw that it did, indeed, mark down any mention of the weapon – the descriptions changed from gun to knife to gun-knife hybrid but the shorthand stayed the same. "If there's nothing else Ms. Sciuto, Agent Gibbs will likely be looking for me by now." Lorne was right, Abby didn't think Gibbs liked the puzzle much more than Abby did herself (before this conversation anyway) but she did have one more question.

"What is that shorthand?" She asked. Abby was no linguist genius but she thought she could recognize most common ones. Lorne was smiling at her. That was unusual: the puzzle didn't smile unless he was with a victim/witness.

"It's the most common way to write on my base. Most of the computer codes are in that script and not everyone on base speaks English. It just kind of just bled over into everything. I've been on my base for a few years now so writing in that is much faster and more automatic than English." Abby didn't quite know what to make of that: a Marine who, according to himself, was head of security somewhere classified was more fluent in some computer code/shorthand than English. She felt her mistrust ratcheting back up to where it had been at the start of the conversation as she watched her puzzle's retreating back.


	3. What Tim Sees

AN: This was just supposed to be a one shot but Abby's Puzzle just kind of fell out of me. Now the story is in my head from a whole lot of perspectives. For the moment they are all in NCIS POV that might change eventually though. They are in no particular order.

Tim watched Major Lorne from across the parking lot, the major had been at NCIS for just long enough for Tim to remember his name without trying (Tim had always had issues remembering names and faces). Tim was close to the building door when he saw Lorne so he decided to wait. The hacker didn't know all that much about the newest member of Team Gibbs – except that the man somehow got Tony to stop calling him Proby on his first day! Because of this Tim's curiosity is peeked when he saw Lorne talking with an older man, not too much older – probably around Tim's age but that still gave him about 5-7 years on the Major. As far as Tim knew Lorne's previous posting were far from DC, he couldn't think of why the major would have friends in the area.

The newer man's wide glasses reflected the light right into Tim's eyes as he watched the pair and his wardrobe was exactly like one of Tim's old professors – Tim couldn't help but think of the man as an academic. He was too far away to get too many details but Tim thought he could see a suit jacket settled on the bench beside them.

Tim would never tell anyone – or ever try to publish a new novel – but he kept writing. Major Lorne had become the focus of one of his new stories. His mysterious past and formal attitude made him a perfect base for a character. Tim could do almost anything to him! Tim had even left his co-worker's characters out of this story and was trying to create 95per cent individuals. He took the bodies from people but – other than Lorne's character – everybody's personality was all Tim's making. He would have liked to have had a better view. But that was neither here nor there: Tony would kill him if he didn't bring back some gossip on Lorne.

The two were sitting side by side on a bench with a folder open between them. Lorne had a go-cup in his hand and he leaned toward the man Tim decided to call 'Professor' eagerly reading what was in the file. Tim could feel the storyline writing itself as he imagined Lorne's character (who was both the bad guy and the main character) hiding his motives from the kind college professor when he went to him for guidance. Professor looked up and Tim, once again, wished he could read lips like Abby. Whatever he said startled Lorne enough to lean back. Maybe Professor, in a plot twist, was a co-conspirator and was Lorne's mentor? Professor pointed at the paper and said something else. Whatever he said brought Lorne's attention back to the pages because he leaned back toward the file, his go-cup tilting in his hand, forgotten. Tim had almost forgotten why he was watching the major as he got caught up in his fiction.

A few minutes passed with professor gesturing sedately and pointing at various things on a few pages as he spoke. He kept looking at Lorne and waiting for his input which was freely given. Tim had never seen the major half as animated as he was during their conversation. From their body language he wouldn't say they were really equals, Lorne differed to Professor and if Professor spoke over Lorne, the major would cut himself off. That was odd: in all Tim's years at NCIS he had never seen any marine differ to anyone who wasn't of a higher rank and Professor screamed civilian – despite his haircut.

Lorne tried to point at something himself but his forgotten cup got in his way. Tim found himself unable to look away from the train wreck that came next. It was a mess of bodies and paper and clothing splattered with what turned out to be tea. Both men jumped up and the professor dropped his file scattering about five papers on the walkway, two fell directly into the puddle of tea. Lorne dropped immediately to gather the fallen papers while the professor took a moment to shake off his burnt hand. Tim could see tea splattered all down the professor's blue button down and brown dress pants. Tim could now see that the professor's jacket was on the bench and it had missed the down-poor.

Lorne stood and went to hand the papers back to professor but stopped when he saw the state of the man. Instead he motioned Tim (Tim freaked out before remembering he was standing in front of the doors) and started walking backwards, keeping an eye to make sure that Professor followed. Tim freaked out again when he saw his new team mate making a beeline towards him (and the door) so he pulled out his phone, moved off to the side, and pretended to be taking a call – stakeouts had taught him something after all. In a way he realized he was lucky – now he would be able to hear what the pair were saying.

"Lorne, Lorne it's okay." The Professor was saying, "Honestly you'd be surprised how many times that happens. This time I can even say it wasn't entirely my fault." The man grinned at Lorne who – to Tim's amazement – shot a sheepish grin back. The major's eyes were still downcast though.

The professor's words did little to placate the major (that Tim was resolutely not looking at… anymore) who replied with the desperate sounding, "There's no way they'll let me go back now that I've ruined your notes for the monthly meeting at the white house." Despite the way Lorne's voice dropped on the last words Tim was sure he'd heard it correctly which just created more questions than answers.

The professor just laughed, "I sent the pentagon a scan of my notes on the off chance that Jack'll look at them, it won't be ideal but Obama is used to the way our people's plans don't always work out. Look at you for example." He paused and Tim looked up at the pair as Lorne opened the door, "You were slotted to take over SG-1 and eventually the SGC before we discovered your Gene – " the closing door cut off whatever the professor said next. But Tim didn't think anything else would have added to his shock. He had some new things to research and he had to ask himself if Lorne have some sort of disorder? If so why wasn't he medically discharged? And was his former posting really that close to the presidential office? Or was he just friends with people who were? After a moment he realized he was standing outside of NCIS with a disconnected cell phone to his ear and rushed inside.

He must have stood there for longer than he thought because the professor was just coming out of the main floor washroom rubbing his hand on a paper towel as Lorne carefully toweled off the last of the papers and placing them in a careful stack.

"I'm so sorry Dr. Jackson," Lorne tried again only to be waved off by the newly dubbed Jackson. Tim couldn't decide if he was glad he had another name to look up (and to sate Tony's curiosity) or sad that now he had Jackson floating around his character study (the only other name he could think to replace it was Sampson).

"It's fine Evan, really. We've all got clothes at Jack's place – have had since he moved out here – so I won't be going to the meeting in tea stained clothes. I have to say," he continued after a pause, "That would have never happened on base or in the field. This place is bad for you Evan. You just have to remember that we are going to get you back. It could take this meeting today or a hundred more like it but you will be back where you belong." Tim could tell that he was trying to convince the major but the despondent set of Lorne's shoulders led Tim to believe that the impromptu pep talk wasn't working.

Jackson fished around in his jacket pocket for a minute. He picked up his stack and handed Lorne a thumb-drive, "Here, we did a quick search and deemed it safe for leaving the base but you know the rules,"

At that point they both said, "Not for normal people." And both smiled. The way they said it lead Tim to believe it was a quote. Thinking about it Tim had to wonder what was on the thumb drive, was Lorne still working for his base despite being in NCIS? Tim's training kicked in again as he saw Jackson pull his jacket over his arms and he hurried away to the elevator – he couldn't chance running into Lorne between the first floor and the bullpen.

"Wait, Major!" Tim called out as the elevator disgorged Lorne and Sheppard, He had only just remembered his observations form two weeks before. Lorne and Sheppard turned back toward the jogging agent, Sheppard with one eyebrow raised.

"Didn't we tell them to contact the general with any other questions?" Tim heard Sheppard mutter to Lorne who only smirked slightly in response. Tim hesitated a moment too long for Sheppard's good graces because he let out an exasperated sigh and motioned for Tim to say his part.

"Major," Tim started again, "Who was that man? Ah I think you called him, Sampson – no, that's not right," Tim frowned thinking hard, he had worked very hard to forget Professor's name so he could use him as a character. "Jackson! That was his name! You spoke to him about two weeks ago." If Tim hadn't been caught up in his internal celebrations he might have noticed the shocked look on Sheppard's face, as it was he was too busy congratulating his memory to react when Sheppard pulled him into the emergency stairwell. He would deny squawking in surprise for years to come.

Sheppard rounded on Lorne with an exclamation of, "Jackson was here? And this booze saw him, got close enough to get his name? Geez Lorne, do we have to send you back to basic?" Seeing that he had gotten Lorne into trouble Tim tried to cut in.

"I really only got his name. There was spilt tea and that's about it." Tim rushed out. It didn't work as planned: Sheppard's eyebrow just went up higher.

The colonel's eyes barely flicked away from Tim as Sheppard bit out, "Tea? There was a rumor about some tea stained notes making their way to the oval office." Tim could see Lorne cringe at that. Sheppard ignored his man opting to answer Tim's question, "Dr. Jackson is the only reason the Outer Base was ever found. He is two thirds of why the Inner Base got off the ground and he is our foremost negotiator both with the non-Americans we meet and with dignitaries on our own soil." With that Sheppard spun on his heel and left.

Lorne watched him for a moment before turning quickly to Tim, "The colonel has never worked directly with Dr. Jackson so he doesn't know the Cardinal Rules for Archaeologists: if you do anything that jeopardises his archaeologist's health or peace of mind the General will have your guts for clotheslines." He paused for a moment, looking in Tim's eyes for something. Whatever Lorne was looking for he must have found it because he went on to say, "You should have seen him that one time Dr. J had to do solo negotiations in hostile territory on my watch. It didn't help that he was the only one who could speak the local language."

Tim found himself watching Lorne and Sheppard's retreating backs hoping against hope that the final morsel of sage advice would be the last he heard the major's voice. Maybe his wish would come true.

Who knew?

End.

If anyone was wondering about Lorne's reference at the end there: the episode where Daniel and Shaka negotiate with the free Unas colony where Lorne's team of marines had been stationed.

I feel Ducky's time with Lorne somewhere in the back of my mind. I actually started writing that one but Tim invaded my mind instead so this happened.

Please tell me what you think.


End file.
